Beagle Puppy

I finally finished a drawing--this one only took a couple hours to complete. I finished it this evening, so there are probably plenty of flaws I will have to fix when I have better light...

Also, NaNoWriMo is going well...my wordcount is currently 10,017 words. :)

Bye-bye. ;)

--Vrenith

Scenic Coconut Tree

I've been meaning to post this picture for several weeks, but this is the first time I've gotten around to it. I got this one, again, from my art teacher's book. Many thanks! I enjoyed this one a lot, and it was relatively easy.

 

The lines on the palm branches aren't quite as prominent as I'd like, because I had to use a fingernail, lacking the craft knife my teacher suggested.

Enjoy!

 

--Vrenith

 

The Silent Assassin

Creeping in beneath us--will I survive it this time? Or will I fail? Procrastination is on the prowl...but he is only the Assassin's sidekick. The true villain? NANOWRIMO. Sweet dreams! ^_^

Feathers and Fans

Nice name, isn't it? Well, I must say that's the name of a knitting pattern for a dishcloth...but what I'm going to talk is mostly feathers, pretty much no fans.

There are two girls who have been coming to our house before and after school, and one of the girls, who is nineteen, leaves her son, Theo (pronounced 'Teo'), with us for the day. He's maybe a year and eight months and is hilarious, though he doesn't help me get my schoolwork done...>_>

ANYWAYS, one of the girls told Alex that she would get a chicken that they could keep together. Well, today they brought a small, country chicken who has been named Life Can Change, (Liberians love these expressive names--a favorite one is Let Them See, which we shortened to LTS) but has been dubbed LCC.

The chicken's feathers are ruffled in this picture...I don't know why. But it LOOKS nice. ;)

And those aren't my fingers. ;)

--Vrenith

Here are the pictures I promised. :) Enjoy!

 

            This is the statue horse I did with my teacher's book. However, her colors were slightly different from mine, and she had a much bigger pack of crayons. I have a sixty-two pack, so a pretty nice selection, but she has over one hundred different shades in hers. Thankfully, I only had to improvise once on the mane. I didn't have the color Antique Brass, so I used another, though I can't recall which one I used.

 

9x12 on Multi Media paper

 

 

 

 

This next one is the only one I've done without the book--I graphed the picture, and then drew the outline with pencil. I don't usually use graphs because they mar the paper (I have problems with drawing lightly), but I gave in on this, just to make sure I would do it accurately. :)

 

I used a piece of paper and colored a bit with all my brown tones and a couple yellow ones and labeled them, and laid them on the photo to find which ones matched. So, this is a fairly accurate picture. I hope.

 

9x12 Sketch paper (it doesn't have any other classification)

 

 

 

 

All right, and thus concludes my post. :)

 

--Vrenith

Back in Black

The above phrase is partially true. I'm back in my Liberian house, helping do laundry by hand, doing my school, and talking to a dozen kids at once. :) I missed all the clamor. 

Mreow.

Anyways, we're back, safe and sound. No monkey, of course, but all of our other pets are safe. :) 

However, Ninja was not here when we came back. She hates strangers, and evidently went outside and only came in for meals, and even then not every night. When we came, they hadn't seen her for several days. 

The little kittens, Chai, Cess, and Snitzel, were there, a little bigger, but very scared. The people who stayed at our house said they came out to eat, then went and hid again. They wouldn't come up at first, but when they did, they just purred...and purred...and purred. If we stopped petting them and walked away, they'd wander the hallway and meow. 

There's an old burnt out building outside of our fence, and one of the security (not one of ours) said that he'd see Ninja over there sometimes. So we went to look. Now, this wasn't dangerous, because even though its burned out, its cement, so its not like we're going into an old, rickety, fire-weakened wooden building. :) Some spots have zinc on the roof, but other rooms are just open. 

There were cat pawprints everywhere, but no Ninja. Alex and I went back later that evening and--in one of those open rooms--there was Ninja! She let me pick her up, and we carried her home. She's doesn't like the dogs or the security, so I held her with one hand, and the other was on her scruff, just in case. Thankfully, she doesn't mind being held by the scruff, and knows she can't get away, so she was relatively calm. 

She was skinny, but very happy to see us. :) Once in our bedroom, she calmed down considerable, and we fed her some rice and sauce. Next thing we know, she's purring and we get a painful love-bite on the chin. XD 

Today Jake, my mom, and I helped Isaac do the laundry because there was so much today. My mom splashed me several times and got my new Skillet shirt wet...>_> 

Jolliff rice today--party food for the Liberians, but we like it so much we make it once a week. :) Mreow.

I've been working with crayon lately, with the help of my teacher's book, Realistic Crayon Drawings. I fall short in most of the exercises, but I did draw a successful plum and a pretty good statue horse. Also, I did a drawing WITHOUT the book, and it worked out rather well. ^_^ I have a sixty-two count box of crayons, so I have a pretty wide range of colors. Unfortunately, my teacher has over one hundred different colors, and thus I have to improvise on some points. 

While in the States, my grandma decided to have Grandpa take me out to get an early birthday present, so I got five different sketchbooks--one normal Bristol, and a bunch of others to test crayon on. My mom went crazy, and after I bought the sketchbooks, I didn't have any money left, so she went and bought five extra pencils, a sharpener, the crayons, and a couple other things. I always feels sick when I buy things...especially with other people's money. :P

The night before we left, three of my mom's friends came over to help pack, and one of them brought us a bunch of things to take. Some skirts and tank tops for my mom and sisters, pens for Ry, along with a case, and for me? Art supplies. ^_^ Pastels, a large case of watercolors, watercolor paper, colored pencils (of a much nicer brand).

Man, I didn't spend a cent of the money I don't even have, and I'm completely furnished with art supplies. XD 

A friend of ours had their eleventh baby while we were in America--another thing to be grateful for. :) 

Well, I've exhausted my supply of information. I should get off, or else I'll come up with something else to discuss at length. XD I'll try to post pictures of my crayon art--but don't take that as a promise. ;)

--Vrenith

America

The Pinch is back, and thus your bruise!

Meow.

Sad news, but also good news. Good news first, eh?

Well, we're in America now--Kansas at the moment, but going to Iowa tomorrow morning. Our last two weeks have been PACKED, and only one week left!

We were about to leave the house in Liberia to get the luggage across the monkey bridge and into the other compound we were renting, but there appeared to be a storm approaching. We made it down to the bridge in plenty of time--but then one of our neighbors began to come across from the other side. That wouldn't be so bad, but this man has one paralyzed arm, so imagine the speed with which he traveled. :P The poor guy couldn't hold on very well.

Then, it started to rain. We struggled to get the suitcases across, but by the time I made it to the other compound, the luggage, my backpack, and I were totally drenched. Lovely getting on the plain damp and smelling like mildew. :P All the Kindles were fine, but my brand new Bristol pad of paper was ruined. And I don't have any money to buy a new one. Oh, wait. This is all bad news. XD

Well, I managed to get one of my mom's shirts (way too big) and her African skirt (Even more too big! I tied it with a ponytail) and rode on the plane like that. I liked to plane ride, more or less. Thankfully out of my wet clothes. Once my lappa (correct spelling? 'Tis a length of fabric that can be used for sewing or just a wrap-around skirt) was dry, I wore that since it fit much better. :)

I sat by Ry, but she fell asleep so I didn't have much company on my sleepless plane ride. I don't sleep on planes, and Jake is even worse. I TRIED to sleep and got forty-five minutes to an hour of doze-wake-up routine. I just couldn't sleep. I don't think I ever really FELL asleep, just kind of faded into oblivion...

The plane ride to Ghana was two, two and a half hours, then from there to Atlanta was twelve hours. And from there, two more hours to Wichita, Kansas.

So, a pretty long plane ride. :P

We stayed at my grandma's for two days, then went to Oklahoma for a family reunion (Grandma's nine brothers and sisters and my mom's twenty-four cousins multiplied to fifty due to spouses--and their kids. XD) So pretty much, we have a big extended family. We had a great time and did a bunch of stuff.

We came back to Grandma's for a couple of days, then went to Colorado for two and a half days to see some Liberians who've come to America. :) The daughter called me "Liberian Girl" the whole time. She's really nice. I did my attempt at Liberian English, and they just loved that. When I said something correctly, they'd be like, "Ah! You hear that? She say, ____" It was funny. And then one of the guys' wife has the same name as me, and I never knew if people were talking to me or to her. It was great.

Back at Grandma's now for two days, and from Iowa we're going to KC to see people there, then back here, then...back to Liberia to see my dogs and kittens. :)

We went to my grandpa's farm and saw Beatrice! She's not that much TALLER, but she's really filled out and her coat came in really nicely. Very soft. :) She was so excited to see us! I'd been kind of afraid she wouldn't remember us, but she didn't bark once while we were there. She's the same as ever--rolls over when you touch her, jumps. She's a big sweetie.

And here's the beginning of the sad news.

The monkey has had four fits--strange little seizure-like things, and they got worse each time. We thought they were done after the third (the second and third ones we thought he was going to die). We got a call a couple of days ago that said that Bobby had a fit and died. We have no idea what he had (could be something was wrong with his brain, or maybe epilepsy) but it was horrible. Better this way, though, than having to suffer those fits. :'/

On a happy note, my mom's cheesecake is famous. O_o We searched "___(name inserted)'s cheesecake," and hers was the first that showed up on the list. :) We read a bunch of posts on blogs from people who didn't know my mom but loved her cheesecake. Haha. ;)

I'd post it, but I don't know it.

Well, see you. :P

--Vrenith